An American maker of car parts has swooped to buy the automotive division of GKN, the British engineer that is trying to shake off a multibillion-pound hostile takeover approach from Melrose Industries.

Melrose quickly fired back, saying that the proposal “changes nothing” and represented “a further admission of the management failure of GKN”, but it did not raise its own offer.

GKN is a leading manufacturer of car and aircraft parts, with £10.4 billion in sales last year and a global workforce of nearly 60,000. GKN Driveline accounted for 51 per cent of its sales last year, ahead of GKN Aerospace’s 35 per cent.